Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-09-16
OUR GREAT SOCIAL EVIL, ITS
CAUSE AND CURE.

Oh shame! Oh worse than follies vain!
How long will man the madd ming goblet drain?
The cup of tears, -the glass of thousand ills,
That fills the almhouse, and the prison fills.
How long will he the deadly poison sip?
With eyes blood-shot, and fever-tainted lip,
Reyel in madness DER midnight bowl?
That turns the brain, and then damns the soul,
Thousand times worse! How long will man for
lust
Of filthy lucre, naught but glitt'ring dust,
No thought or care for worse than orphans
cries
No heartfelt sigh for worse than widows signs
No humane tear for woes most bitter tears
From Gods avenging justice, void OF fears
Unheeding curses sworn by heavens high
throne
Alike unmindful of the maniac's groan-
Caring for nothing but to prolong his craft
Knowing who drinks will sure renew the draft
OF all regardless but the ready dime ,..
Hold to his neighbours lips the cup of crime?
Is there no hope? May we not purge the stain?
There is, forsooth; I've point to noble Maine!
Maine, who the grand anthem Prohibition
sings
Chorused with chimings from the bnbbling
springs,
Echoed from The brows Of her thousand hills
Joined with the music of her purling rills.
Maine, who to the fore front in each good cause,
Grandly strides forth, with, or withoutapplause,
And to the talismanic charm of right,
Adds the full virtue of ''law 81 magic might
Then; lest some future woe break it as straw,
Inscribes it in her fundamental law"
"But what, sir! say some, edo you fondly think
To legislate what may east and drink?
To liberty, of which we boast, good bye
The flag we love is yet hounting lie"
''OH LIBERTY What error in thy name!'
Will not misguided mortals oft proclaim?
But Maine is not the only state whose laws,
Give aid and comfort to our righteous cause,
For she who boasts of her Green Mountain boys,
Into the scale Of justice casts her poise.
Nor stay our legions on these fields Of fame;
But pressing onward, cheered by their valiant
name,
Fresh laurels add, as down Atlantic's shore
Where Georgia, whose gallant warriors pour
Libations, not of what wild Bachus sings,
But limpia water from her crystals springs,
In honor of our goddess Of the just
who let's her sword not in its scabbard rust:
While they, our sisters Of the sunny cline
Join in the contest, in their sturdy prime
E. en- the Lone Star now beams her twinkllng
light,
AS with sword and buckler she joins the fight
Ohio's fair crusaders formed a band,
To drive the invaders from the land;
And as their strength with number daily grew,
Produced in Gods good time the C.T.U.
All honor to this noble christian band,
whose motto is, "God, Home and NativeLand."
Thus, while we labor on, our force gains
strength,
And victory crowns our labors, still at length.
While circling through this wide domain OF
states.
Poor "bleedirg Kansas opens wide her gates,
And welcome. in the Prohibition throng,
with loud hurras, and joyous bursts of song
Thus swelling up the temperance "tidal wave
The iuebriate from his low estate to save
Iowa, too, with all the great Northwest,
Joins in the fray, with most cheerful zest'
OF Dakota, which is, and yet is not,
Ut, hard to know lust how to write or what
Vat ,tie most sure, his embryonic vote;